The first dough of the new harvest was made into a cake, and ofl'ered as a heave-offering (Nu 15^). This ng-i;; was leavened ; some have sup- posed it to be coarse meal, but the rabbinical initlioritics understand it as leavened dough (see JJ'i/l'i). This ofleriiig is referred to in Neh H^ and Ezk 44*", where it is stated to be for tlie asc of the priest; for superstitious uses of thia
318
BREAD
BREAD
■ee Otho, Lexicon Talm. under the word Challa, p. 495.
Tlie cakes or loaves were usually flat and circular, a span in diameter, and aljout an intli tliick ; these are called, from their shape, nnz; (Ex 29^, Jg 8», 1 S 10", Pr 6*"). In Jl' 7'" the word is SVji (Kethibh, for which ^irS has V^j) ; such cakes were like flat stones (Mt 7*, Lk 11"). Three such loaves were a meal for one person (Lk 11°), and one was prison fare (Jer 37^'), or a charity dole (1 S 2™). At the average price of barley in NT times, as well as it can be estimated, 2U0 pennyworths of barley bread would liave been about 50U0 loaves — a mouthful to each of the multitude (Jn 6'). Abigail's 200 loaves, the fill of the pannier baskets of an ass, would serve for a reasonable feast for David and his men (1 S 25l^ 2 S lU'). Other kinds of bread were ni^n, Nu lo**, Lv 8^*, probably also cylindrical or round cakes ; possibly these may be, as has been suggested, punctured cakes, the punctures being depressions made by the smooth pebbles in tlie oven (cf. the <c6\Xi{ of the Greeks ; LXX renders cake in 2 S 6'" 13« by (toWupIs) ; nb';^, folded or rolled-up cakes, some- thing like pancakes, supposed by some to be heart-shapeJ (2 S 13°), possibly a cake with aromatic seeds added as a carminative. For these finer cakes the dougli was twice kneaded, nijy were round cakes also (Gn 18», 1 K 17'^ Ezk 4").' B'lijj, tr. cracknels (IK 14' AV), were probably cakes sprinkled on the surface with aromatic seeds, like the barm-brack of the Irish (literaUy aran breac, spotted bread). The widow of Zarephath calls cakes by what was probably a provincial name, J^i'?.
The methods of baking were various. The earliest mentioned is baking upon the hearth (Gn 18'), that is, on the heated stones of tlie hearth, the embers bein" drawn aside and around it. This was probably the Passover metliod (Ex 12^^). Elijah's cake was baked on the hot embers (1 K 19''} ; so the bread in Jn 21*. B. thus baked was the iyKpv<pla! ipros of Hippocrates, as in LXX. The common method of baking in later times was in ovens, of which there were several kinds. Fixed ovens were commonly hollows in the floor, often of the principal room, about 4' X 3', coated with clay, and heated by being filled with buminsj fuel. Such were possibly tlie Dn'3 of Lv 1 1". Portable ovens, nin, were earthen or stone jars, about 3 ft. high, heated inwardly with wood (1 K 17", Is 44'», Jer 7'^) or dried grass and herbage, x"/"''" (Mt 6^") ; in the absence of other fuel, dried camel dung or cow dung was used (Ezk 4''^- "). When the oven was fully heated the cakes were put in. Then dough was sometimes spread on the outside of the oven ; and such a cake, like one baked on a hot hearthstone, requires to be turned, or else it remains raw on one side, while burnt on the other (Hos 7'). Ovens of both kinds are still in use in Bible lands. Some- times cakes were baked in a pan or njno, which was a flat plate of metal or earthenware, like a •girdle,' which could be made to stand on its edge (Ezk 4'). This was placed over the tire, with the cake laid upon it (Lv 6-' 7», 1 Ch 23-"). Tamar's pan was m^?, probably a deeper, concave one, out of which the cakes were poured in a heap (2 S 13»), like the Tiynvov of Aristoplianes (Eq. 929). The nif^T^T of Lv 2' 1', which is distinguished in the latter passage from the mahabath or flat pan, was probalily some kind of shallow pot for boiling the meal for tlie od'ering, which is mingled with oil, and not a frying-pan, as in both RV and AV. A mess of food thus prepared is still known among some Bedawin tribes, and is called ftita. This may be the meal olFeriug ' which is soaked ' of 1 Ch 23-*. Unleavened bread was, and still is, made into thin flat cakes, c'p-ij-| (Ex 29", Lv 2*) ; hence they
are called wafers. In Ex 29" the cakes made with oil (Xdvai-a) are contrasted with the wafers anointed mth oil. These were both made in or upon an oven (Lv 2*) ; a third kind, the/Wxa of the Latin writers, were made in a mnhubath (2'). Un- leavened bread is called nyj, as in Ex 12", when contrasted with leavened bread irrespective of shape. All forms of bread were broken when being used,— not cut (Mt W 26-», Lk 24^, Ac 2'"), the pieces being xXiaiuiTa, broken pieces. It was smeared with olive oU (1 K 17'"), as we now use butter ; occasionally with honey, which was sometimes mixed in the dough (Ex 16"), as in the lifXtTTwfiaTa of Dioscorides (4''^), or the ceremonial TTvpafiovvTes (Ephippus, E<j>rj^. P). Butter as well as honey was used with bread (2 S 17"^, Is 7'°) ; but honey, being a fermentable substance, was prohibited in burnt-oU'erings (Lv 2"). In Egypt the forms of bread were equally varied ; and in the picture of the baker's workshop referred to there are conical loaves, flat cakes, rolled-up cakes, and cakes spotted with seeds. In the list of oB'erings in the great Harris papyrus and other lists there are enumerated kclushta { = h/:dloth), mes, san or sannu, funeral cakes; kiki or pyramids, like the kikkaroth ; hebnen, or cakes for otf'ering ; bant, ken.hu, hefa, and tetet cakes. The commonest form was the conical, of which clay models were commonly placed in tombs as symbols of funeral food. Egyp. bread is represented monumentally as carried in baskets on the head of the baker, as in the chief baker's dream (Gn 40"). The words there used, "in -^p, rendered ' white baskets ' in AV, and ' baskets of white b.' LXX, Aq. Syr. and RV, is possibly the Egyp. kheru, used of the food for a funeral oflering. For mode of carrying see Herod, ii. 35.